Real World 8-ball Situation

Cornerman

Cornerman

Cue Author...Sometimes
Silver Member
Here's one that I'll never forget, unfortunately. Sometimes, I think people have no idea how lucky 8-ball can be. I played a tournament yesterday and lost to someone that seemed to play 8-ball with the philosophy that as long as he's at the table, he might as well shoot balls in, not bother to have any realistic runout plan, accidentally bump balls along the way, and hopefully everything will just work out. Normally, this never works, but apparently, I've been playing the wrong way all along.

The following layout, I'm solids. My opponent never tried to beak open the 8-ball, and played a shot and hoped to bank the 8-ball, but he missed the 9-ball, and went long with the cueball and left me this.

So, what would you shoot from here? BTW, I lost as he got out at his next time at the table.

CueTable Help



Fred
 
Well from the couch I would definitely play safe off the 6 ball. In reality if the guy seemed to luck his way through the racks. I would probably be irritated my this point and try to pocket the three ball leading to my demise.

It's amazing how some people can luck thier way through racks. I have a friend that lucks his way though every rack and manages to miss well to. If you know what I mean. He is one of the best/worst pool players I know.
 
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I would hope that a high percentage of reasonable 8-ball players would play the same shot. Safe on the 6-ball. Because he put me on the cushion, I had to hit with follow, so hitting the 6-ball far enough to get some kind of distance away from the 8-ball and trying ensure perfection behind the 7-ball would have been asking a lot considering I was pretty frustrated. But, I thought that if I really got unlucky and left him a look at the 9-ball, there wasn't a bank or a kick for him. This is the whole sequence. Scroll through the pages.

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He stared at the table for what seemed like 2 days before he shrugged his shoulders, licked the impossible shot, and even though balls were flying all over the place, he got the juiciest roll in the universe.

Fred <~~~ wishes he could play like that
 
yahosh said:
So who won?
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DJ Hopkins won to win his second NH State 8-ball Amateur Championship. He beat... Paul T., the guy who I just posted about. I'd like to hear Kevin "Selftaut" V.'s assessment of his (Paul's) game. It looked like much the same when I watched them playing the next match. I think I ended up 5/6 if I read the chart correctly.

The tournament had almost every strong shooter in our half. The luck of the draw and all.

Fred
 
Cornerman said:
He stared at the table for what seemed like 2 days before he shrugged his shoulders, licked the impossible shot, and even though balls were flying all over the place, he got the juiciest roll in the universe.

Fred <~~~ wishes he could play like that
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Well, he did beat U in a race to THREE :embarrassed2: ;)

How many peeps showed up?

Brian
 
APA7 said:
Well, he did beat U in a race to THREE :embarrassed2: ;)
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Yeah, it does seem like a short race, but the toughness of the table has always separated the top players from the rest of the players. I think (and I'm just throwing it out), the grueling nature of the equipiment is about the same as a race to 5 or 6 on easier equipment. I'd like to see what other thought. I think there were about six players that either post or lurk on here.

For a race to three tournament, that ain't so bad for a $1000 first place payout.

How many peeps showed up?

Brian
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32. We went from 60 players in the first year, to 50 the next, to 40's , now to 30's. So, hopefully in a few more years, I'll be the only one coming so I can't do too badly.

Fred
 
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Cornerman said:
Yeah, it does seem like a short race, but the toughness of the table has always separated the top players from the rest of the players. I think (and I'm just throwing it out), the grueling nature of the equipiment is about the same as a race to 5 or 6 on easier equipment. I'd like to see what other thought. I think there were about six players that either post or lurk on here.

For a race to three tournament, that ain't so bad for a $1000 first place payout.

32. We went from 60 players in the first year, to 50 the next, to 40's , now to 30's. So, hopefully in a few more years, I'll be the only one coming so I can't do too badly.

Fred
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He probably isn't that bad of a player if he beat U THREE games, give him a tiny bit of credit :sorry:

Brian
 
not bad...

Fred, 5/6th is pretty respectable considering your back situation. You'll get em' next year sir.

Josh
 
APA7 said:
He probably isn't that bad of a player if he beat U THREE games, give him a tiny bit of credit :sorry:

Brian
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I'd love to, but I can't. He could make shots. That's all I can say about his game. There wasn't any strategic play. There wasn't any decent runout plans. There was a whole lot of accidental ball bumping. That is, he shot like he had no idea what 8-ball is about. He even apologized to me at how many good rolls he got. He missed a lot of shots and left me safe over and over.

I've played this tournament for four years. I've never known anyone to beat the top players by lucking through the racks. But, this guy did it to me. It's not out of the question. It's 8-ball after all. I don't have to like it.

He's probably an SL-7 in his town. He wouldn't be in my town.

Fred
 
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Cornerman said:
I'd love to, but I can't. He could make shots. That's all I can say about his game. There wasn't any strategic play. There wasn't any decent runout plans. There was a whole lot of accidental ball bumping. That is, he shot like he had no idea what 8-ball is about. He even apologized to me at how many good rolls he got. I've played this tournament for four years. I've never known anyone to beat the top players by lucking through the racks. But, this guy did it to me. It's not out of the question. It's 8-ball after all. I don't have to like it.

He's probably an SL-7 in his town. He wouldn't be in my town.

Fred
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Every1 gets lucky sumtimes N this guy might have been real lucky that rack.

Remember, he didn't luck his way through the hole tourniment 2 finish second:grin-square: :eek:

Brian
 
APA7 said:
Every1 gets lucky sumtimes N this guy might have been real lucky that rack.

Remember, he didn't luck his way through the hole tourniment 2 finish second:grin-square: :eek:

Brian
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I'm glad you saw him through the tournament. Or you could let it go. Your choice. He isn't getting any back pats from me. And I'm a pretty respectful back patter at this tournament. I've always congratulated good play. Don't try to make me congratulate shitty luck ass play, please.

He played Selftaut next. And beat him. I'd like to hear what his thoughts were.

Fred
 
Looks like the safe was poorly executed to leave him that look on the 9.He made a good/tough shot to win.That safe should be high percentage to hook him.All you can do is play the best/smartest shot at the time and execute as well as possible.Even a perfect safe shot does not guarantee victory or even that you will get back to the table.
 
Cornerman said:
I'm glad you saw him through the tournament. Or you could let it go. Your choice. He isn't getting any back pats from me. And I'm a pretty respectful back patter at this tournament. I've always congratulated good play. Don't try to make me congratulate shitty luck ass play, please.

He played Selftaut next. And beat him. I'd like to hear what his thoughts were.

Fred
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OK, U win champ :sorry: :confused:

Brian
 
smoooothstroke said:
Looks like the safe was poorly executed to leave him that look on the 9.He made a good/tough shot to win..
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Not for nothing, but I need to stress that the safety from that position was not by any means easy to hook him. The speed of the table and the fact that you were forced to hit top made the hook difficult.

And his shot wasn't "good/tough." Good and tough aren't even in the same galaxy as this shot. His shot wasn't even available. I was actually sitting directly inline with the path of the object ball. It wiggled out of position and then wiggled back into position on the way to the hole! And the cueball path aftwards was just insane for as fast as the cueball had to go. The 4-ball killed its speed, and it slid across the table to hit the 7-ball full in the face. About a zillion mini things could have thwarted that shot, but none of them happened.

This is the good and bad of the Cuetable. You just can't appreciate how difficult some of these shots are. Cuz if anyone thinks that my safety was somehow easy or that his shot was simply a "tough shot," then the table is failing to really show the shots.

Fred <~~~ hopes nobody ever has to fade this shot
 
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